[Sh Ranger]

I watched the Gotchard Hyper Battle and Strongest Chemies yesterday.

Always good to see a body swap plot where the actors properly act as each other. Looks like Matsumoto had a lot of fun portraying Houtarou with the expressive body language that we don't often see from Rinne. Hopefully those people who were claiming she was a bad actor can realize now that this is clearly a trait of the character.

I like how Inphoenix and Firemars are symbolic of Houtarou and Rinne being more alike than different despite their opposite temperaments, with both Chemies being fire elemental and Level 5, which is the average of 1 and 9. For anybody surprised about Majade's fighting style, there's a useful part here where Houtarou accidentally snoops through Rinne's bag and learns that she had been revising superhero books in preparation for her debut in the show. Cool how Rinne's studiousness also makes her a strong fighter!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Also, Minato was not even in the third plan, but somewhere at the level of an extra. But there is a moment in the film where he and Tsumuri find themselves alone, they could at least talk about their common love for the color black.

Minato is lucky. He at least got to appear in this movie, unlike Win who was inexplicably absent once more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

But everything else is great. For once, the characters not only fight together, but also communicate. Moreover, showing character, and not:
"It must be hard to be a doctor?
?Yes, it?s better than a ghost.?
Even their motorcycles communicate, which, thanks to the movie budget, received their moment of fame. Yes, this is not the level of Megamax and Ultimatum, but at least something.
Still, I must note that the characters of the main characters were elevated to the grotesque. Hotaro's childishness has been turned up to the maximum and he behaves like a five-year-old. Ace, in turn, is more reminiscent of Michinaga from the beginning of Geats. But this does not spoil the overall impression and is fully compensated by interesting interactions and exciting adventures.

Yeah, the characters' eccentricities were elevated for sure. I can't take Spanner seriously about "not working with Chemies" when he knows that Michinaga is a human, although it's certainly ironic that Michinaga of all people is suggesting to work together and getting refused. What an unfunny joke. Both Gotchard and Tycoon somehow fail at stealth while trying to infiltrate X Fortress, even though Gotchard could've used EnergyMaru and Tycoon is literally a ninja-themed Rider with ninpou. Does feel like the movie deducted their intelligence to make them seem more incompetent than usual. Otherwise I enjoyed the fun interactions and the return of Houtarou's competitive spirit in his rivalry with Ace.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Next up is Inspector Kugimiya. I guessed that the alchemist would find a way to counter Ace's divine abilities. I didn't guess that he would be the Gamemaster, but what the film presented was even better. Ace's longtime DGP opponent has learned alchemy to get his revenge! This immediately puts him at the top of Geats' list of villains, if only because of his persistence. Also, his final form is cool, but too similar to Geats, which is why several times during the rush of the battle it seemed to me that Hotaro was hitting Ace.

I'd wondered what happened to Kugimiya, since he totally just disappeared from the show after a few scenes of suspiciously Garren-watching in the background. I thought Bolt was obsessed with Spanner, but yeah, Kugimiya's 2022 year-long quest for revenge on Ace takes that to the extreme. This dude doesn't even care about Gotchard, he literally became a high-ranking alchemist just to wage his petty vendetta against Ace. Such a pathetic waste of long life.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

I remember Revice was criticized for paying too much attention to her. Here, Rinne literally turns into the main character of her own special within the film. However, I don?t mind, although this part had the most mistakes, both technical and caused by too crumpled narration.

Rinne was always the main character though, as she was officially recognized as Gotchard's co-protagonist alongside Houtarou. So it's not like she's stealing focus from others, it was already hers by right. Furthermore, Rinne is a nice person who always cares about the wishes of others even at her own expense, which makes her the polar opposite of someone like Sakura.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

It's even more funny that in this film we learned more about Ace's past than in his own show. And without the logic-breaking blunders typical of Geatsu, who even in Gazer?s haste managed to shoot himself in the foot, showing that Ace could not participate in the DGP in the Sengoku era, because that DGP did not happen, and the next one began in our time. But I digress... I was actually surprised that Ace showed more emotion with the plush toy than with his mother, but let's chalk that up to the other writers. Besides, the toy is wonderful.
To sum it up, this is not a perfect film, but it is a very good one. Kind, bright, exciting, funny, educational, well shot and written. Everyone watch.

I always wanted to see more of Ace's relationship with his Ukiyo family, since Niram only mentioned it briefly. So I'm glad that this movie focused on that by showing us the Ukiyo family dog Konstantine who Ace clearly loved and named Boostriker in his memory. While I'd prefer such important details to be put in the show, this moment certainly makes Ace more endearing and sympathetic, as I'm sure a lot of people can relate to his pain of losing a beloved pet in such a common road accident.

Family seems to be a theme of the movie, as Houtarou's motivation for returning to the real world was to apologize to Tamami for being too harsh on her. Reminds me of Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger, where Koh (whose actor is even named Ichinose H.) regrets arguing with Tyramigo after the latter is abducted. I enjoyed both of these movies and I think it's a good moral that even though we may argue with our loved ones sometimes, it's always important to make up with them after. Don't leave it until it's too late.

EDIT: This is my 2100th post!